Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

Throw back Thursday: leadership succession planning

We receive so much valuable content from our customers, partners and internal subject-matter experts. On Thursdays, we thought it would be fun to do a “throw back” and bring back an older post that was valuable to our audience. Today’s throw back is about leadership succession planning.

How prepared are you for leadership loss?

By Shawn Hunter

AMA Corporate Learning recently surveyed over 1,100 senior managers and executives on the topic of leadership succession planning and discovered only 14% described their organization as properly prepared to confront key leadership loss, and over 80% said they were either “somewhat prepared” or “not at all prepared.” In the case of Apple and Steve Jobs, confidence appears reasonably high that Tim Cook is prepared to lead the company through Jobs’ health break. Yet, 14% nationally reflects a pretty sad confidence level in our leadership pipeline.

I’m reminded of the development culture at U.S. Cellular, which dictates the both/and equation when it comes to business results. In their culture, a defining metric of goal success is both achieving the business objective AND developing people in the process. The goal is considered incomplete if you ink a deal but the people growth component isn’t there. There is a clear expectation that business drivers include the people development part. Because people aren’t assets, they’re well…people.

Partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters

The Skillsoft corporate headquarters in Nashua, N.H. partnered again with the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) non-profit organization to bring Christmas cheer to children in need this year. The BBBS provided Skillsoft with a list of wishes from several children. During the months of November and December, Skillsoft employees had the option of selecting children to buy gifts for from lists posted in both Nashua offices. In the end, we collected over 100 presents! The BBBS delivered those donations to local children.

We’re so grateful for everyone’s generosity this season! We can’t thank our employees enough for their continued commitment to helping out the community!

 

Throw back Thursday: mid-level managers

We receive so much valuable content from our customers, partners and internal subject-matter experts. On Thursdays, we thought it would be fun to do a “throw back” and bring back an older post that was valuable to our audience. Today’s throw back features a Skillsoft customer discussing training for mid-level managers.

Hear how Michael Milbier of GlobalFoundries discusses how the company leverages valuable Skillsoft resources for a blended learning approach to leadership, including its use of the Skillsoft® Leadership Development Channel™ , Skillsoft® Leadership Advantage™ and courseware for a mid-level manager program rollout.

 

 

Toys for children in need

The Inside Sales team at one of Skillsoft’s Nashua offices was bursting with activity recently as they collaborated together on a holiday charity project.  The group set up multiple drop boxes to collect gifts for the Toys for Tots charity led by the U.S. Marine Corps. One of the team members, Chris Rustici, has been involved with the Toys for Tots program since 2006 through his Marine Corps Reserve Unit based in Londonderry, N.H.

October-December the U.S. Marine Corps collect unwrapped toys from drop box locations—like Skillsoft— and then sort them by age and gender. Afterwards, the toys are distributed to needy children throughout the U.S. In 2011 alone, the entire program distributed nearly 16 million toys to more than 7 million children. With over 2 million non-profit organizations in the U.S., this nationwide program is ranked #75 with 97.5% of donations going towards their mission of providing gifts and only 2% going towards overhead.

The toys gathered by the Skillsoft Inside Sales team will stay in the N.H. area. The Toys for Tots volunteers sort all of the toys , bring them to N.H. non-profit organizations which in turn deliver the toys to deserving children.

What a great way to give back! Stay tuned for more stories on how Skillsoft employees are helping out this holiday season!

Skillsoft smooths enterprise transition to Microsoft® Windows® 8

Are you prepared to maximize the features and power of Microsoft’s latest operating system? In response to our customers’ interest in Windows 8, Skillsoft is excited to now offer a Configuring Microsoft Windows 8 Live Learning course to introduce the important new capabilities that the platform has to offer.  The course provides IT professionals with the foundation needed to develop a strategy for migrating their organization to the new operating system. The course covers a broad spectrum of topics including installation, migration, Windows 8-style applications, user and group accounts, security, networking, client virtualization and advanced configuration.

Here at Skillsoft, we strive to provide strategic guidance and expert tactical instruction on how to tackle new opportunities as significant as Windows 8. We are pleased that our customers recognize the importance of understanding how Windows 8 should be integrated into their technology roadmaps and are happy to offer the industry’s leading learning assets for Microsoft solutions. 

Throw back Thursday: the learner user experience

We receive so much valuable content from our customers, partners and internal subject-matter experts. On Thursdays, we thought it would be fun to do a “throw back” and bring back an older post that was valuable to our audience. Today’s throw back is about the user experience for learners.

Designing Skillport® 8: notes from the trenches

By Stephanie Pyle

At the 2012 Skillsoft Perspectives conference, we unveiled an advanced look at our upcoming Skillport® 8 release. Skillport 8 brings together all formats of learning content, integrating books, courses and videos in the same library, giving the user a single, seamless experience. To support users on-the-go, Skillport 8 is cross-platform and cross-device – it works as well on a tablet as on a desktop. Many customers asked how we arrived at such a dramatic (and effective) design. There’s a story there and we’re pleased to share it.

Early on, the team went back to basics to ask ourselves just what is Skillport’s “role” in the customer relationship?  Is Skillport why they do business with Skillsoft in the first place? After much discussion, we arrived at the collective realization that though Skillport was our own passion (because we work on it every day), it is really more of a supporting player to most of our customers. For them, Skillsoft content is the driving force behind the business relationship, with Skillsoft’s service and experience sealing the deal.

Reflecting further, we realized that while the various features and functions of an LMS are important, it is the optimization of the user experience with the content that’s key. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about Skillsoft content or an organization’s proprietary content.  By focusing on the content, we’ve designed Skillport to be a richer total user experience. The visual design features a more streamlined look to allow the content to be the focus. The navigation and actions are readily apparent and intuitive because of the use of established standards and consistency within the application. Our team took the latest web design principles into consideration for Skillport 8. With mobile on the brain, we made sure it would be suitable on a tablet by optimizing it for a gestural interface.

Our team’s second epiphany was to again go back to basics and ask ourselves just exactly what do the vast majority of Skillport users wish to do. It’s simple − 90% of the time they arrive on a mission to:

•  Find appropriate learning, and
• “Transact” that learning (take it, enroll in it, or flag it for later).

Digging a little deeper, we defined two different models for how people like to “find” information. Using the example of shopping in a department store, we identified two basic seeker-type personas.

• The “Shopper” loves to walk the aisles, examine the merchandise to see what catches their eye and make purchase selections that way.
• The “Hunter” enters the store, knows just what he/she wants, uses the store directory to make a bee-line to the desired item and make the purchase; in-and-out.

Then we asked ourselves which popular websites support both the Shopper and the Hunter today? To gain insight, we identified consumer websites that people use every day. By making Skillport resemble these popular consumer websites, this means much less of a learning curve for our users.  

For the “Shopper,” consumer websites have intuitive category/department browse capabilities with supporting filters (like color, price, size, etc.) to narrow-down selections as desired. In Skillport 8, we revamped the content catalog to combine all assets (including Books24x7 titles) into one complete subject matter library. Plus we provide customers the ability to build alternate views − organizing content as they wish, such as by competency.

Book Review: Building the Learning Organization: Achieving Strategic Advantage through a Commitment to Learning, Third Edition

By Pam Boiros

It’s no secret that over the past decade economic, social and technological forces have intensified significantly, dramatically altering the traditional work environment. External change and forces demand either organizational adaptation or extinction. 

Now in its third edition, Building the Learning Organization is a recognized classic in the field.  In the years since it has been published, hundreds of organizations worldwide have learned about and applied the learning organizational model and strategies in the book.   

Author Michael J. Marquardt is professor of Human Resource Development and International Affairs as well as Program Director of Overseas Programs at George Washington University.  Dr. Marquardt also serves as President of the World Institute for Action Learning and is the author of 20 books.  In this new edition of Building the Learning Organization, Marquandt makes a bold assertion:

“As we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century, organizations must learn even faster and adapt more seamlessly to changes in the environment or they simply will not survive...  I predict that within the next ten years, only learning organizations will be left. Companies that do not become learning organizations will soon go the way of the dinosaur; they will die out because they were unable to adjust to the changing environment.”

With case studies from several global corporations, and a review of the key organizational and leadership theories, this book is designed to help learning leaders at all levels understand how to leverage existing resources and build successful learning organizations.  Applied effectively, these techniques can result in an organizational culture of learning, and a highly skilled and competitive workforce that helps your organization grow and achieve success.

Season’s greetings! No better time than now to connect with Skillsoft.

The holiday season reminds us that this is a time for connecting with friends and family.  That’s how Skillsoft feels about you and we hope that you will take this time to connect with us through our social channels.

Since the completion of the acquisition of MindLeaders in September, we’ve been working to ensure a smooth transition of the MindLeaders community over to Skillsoft.  We are happy to report that many of you are now following the various Skillsoft channels and are helping to enrich our community.  We value each and every one of our followers and are pleased to share your learning experiences through fresh content and engaging conversation.

As we near the end of year – at which time we will be closing down the MindLeaders social channels – we want to encourage everyone, if they have not already done so,  to join us by following Skillsoft on Learning re-imagined, Twitter (@Skillsoft)  Facebook and LinkedIn. Our goal is to provide you, our customers, with the most valuable content available, which is why we are excited about this new, collaborative community. Have a thought or experience you’d like to share? We want to hear from you! Engagement and continued conversation with learners and influencers like you will be key to continued growth in our community and beyond.

Throw back Thursday: learning cultures

We receive so much valuable content from our customers, partners and internal subject-matter experts. On Thursdays, we thought it would be fun to do a “throw back” and bring back an older post that was valuable to our audience. Today’s throw back is about creating learning cultures.

 

Creating effective learning cultures

Studies show that making learning a priority can positively affect your organization in a number of ways. Employee engagement improves and there is higher retention and satisfaction. Business processes also become more efficient and streamlined, resulting in a higher ROI and long-term success.  Research from Bersin & Associates indicates that companies with learning cultures have higher financial returns over a 10-20 year period. To achieve these desired outcomes with learning, your organization needs to encourage continuous learning and create a supportive environment.

When learning is a part of your company culture and supported from the top down, employees can make learning a frequent part of their routine. According to a recent blog post by Ladan Nikravan, from Chief Learning Officer, “creating a culture focused on continuous education and skill building can help an organization adapt during unanticipated dilemmas.”

In a global economy where competition is fierce, only the smart will survive. Continuous learning helps your organization remain innovative and stay at the forefront of your industry. With established learning cultures, there are no boundaries within departments: employees can problem solve with other groups, promoting a fresh flow of ideas and perspectives. This type of environment makes your employees more inclined to receive feedback and accept changes that could positively affect your business.

Attend tomorrow’s Conversations in Leadership webinar featuring Molly Harvey

Skillsoft is pleased to invite you to the eighth webinar in our hugely popular series featuring innovative thought-leaders and best-selling authors. We encourage you to leverage these webinars to gain valuable business and leadership insight as well as actionable ideas.

Join us for a complimentary webinar featuring Molly Harvey

Please join us tomorrow, December 5, 12-1 p.m. EST for a conversation with Molly Harvey focused on the topics covered in her book, Seconds Away from Outstanding Leadership. Shawn Hunter, Executive Producer for Skillsoft's Leadership Development Channel™ and 50 Lessons will host.

Outstanding leadership is a key requirement for managers at all levels. Effective managers use practical leadership skills and performance-based coaching to achieve objectives. Learn to destroy old patterns and implement new thought forms to become an outstanding leader.

Register today!

About Molly Harvey
Molly Harvey is a leading authority on leadership and culture change, speaking at corporations around the world. Recognized for her no-nonsense, thought-provoking approach, Molly provokes her audiences to think differently about the way they work and live. She is the best-selling author of Seconds Away from Outstanding Leadership and has reached number 15 in Best Business Books in March 2012. Molly regularly lectures at universities and has spoken at the United Nations in New York. Her achievements include becoming first National Woman President and Fellow of the Professional Speakers Association in England 2005-2006, and she is a current Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the board of the Association of Transformational Leaders Council, Europe.